The Big Dirt Nap

there's money involved.'

'I think I may have seen your mother at Titans. Is her name Jackie?'

'That's her. She's real young. People sometimes take us for sisters.' I was working on the math when Chantel told me her mother had only been sixteen years old when she gave birth.

'Mom was away from home, at a competition. My biological father was an athlete from another school. She never even told him. I mean what for? Was he supposed to drop out of high school and come marry some girl who lived two thousand miles away?'

It sounded like the mantra that Jackie Connelly must have repeated to herself and her little girl when they were both growing up.

'Anyway,' Chantel said, 'she had a good weekend. She just missed one double axel, otherwise she would have medaled.'

Lucy finally came out and the sheriff's assistant ushered Chantel and baby Sean into the visitor's room.

'Was that . . . ?' Lucy asked, turning around to check Chantel out. 'God, she looks so young.'

'She is,' I said. 'How's Claude doing?'

Claude Crawford was doing well, considering he'd lost two brothers in six months. 'He's got a warrior's attitude,' Lucy said. If she was no longer in love, she was still infatuated. We walked out to the car and sat in silence for a few minutes. I gave her some time. She drove zombielike through the town until I made her pull over.

'I'm not getting on the highway with you like this, even for one exit,' I said. 'Let me drive and you tell me what happened in there.'

There were no tissues in the rental car, just a stack of rough, coffee-stained Dunkin' Donuts napkins; they would have to do for the tears I knew were coming. She blotted her eyes to push the tears back, and then held up her bangs briefly, keeping the napkins there as if her head were about to explode.

'They wouldn't have even been at the hotel except for me. Neither would Nick. Nick might be alive if it wasn't for this stupid story. And who cares anyway if there's another casino in Connecticut? If people want to gamble they'll figure out a way to do it. Remember the Te-Adoros in Brooklyn?'

The waterworks started again and I flattened out more of the crumpled napkins for her to use.

I did remember the Te-Adoros. They were cheap cigars. Like Coca-Cola, the company gave large red and white signs to anyone who promised to carry their product. Seemingly overnight, dozens of independent stores with the same Te-Adoro signs opened up in Brooklyn and in addition to selling cigars, newspapers, and cigarettes, they did a nice business with illegal video poker machines discreetly tucked away behind the cases of soda and bottled water.

'It's all my fault,' she sobbed.

'It's not.' I didn't add that she, too, could have been killed by whatever lunatic had shot Nick, but presumably she knew that. At least in her more lucid moments. She took a deep breath. 'Billy didn't kill Nick.'

'And you know this because his brother told you? What possible motivation could he have for lying?'

'He's not lying. Billy and some homeless guy saw it happen. Now that Billy's disappeared they'll say he did it. And the real killer will come after Claude because he thinks Claude knows.'

'Does he know who the killer is?'

Lucy shook her head. Trying to keep his brother safe, Billy hadn't told him who he'd seen put a hole in Nick Vigoriti's head. I had my doubts as to whether Billy's strategy would work. Whoever killed Nick would want to make sure neither of the Crawford brothers talked, and you can't talk if you're dead. He'd also want to make sure Lucy didn't talk. And me. I opened the passenger-side door and walked around to the driver's side.

'Well, somebody knows. Slide over,' I said. She looked at me through puffy, veiny eyes.

'Who?' she asked.

'Let's go find that homeless guy.'

Forty

'We're going to Georgie's.'

'It's starting to freak me out that you know everyone in this town after less than a week,' Lucy said, checking herself out in the mirror and fixing her hair.

'I don't know everyone,' I said. 'It's a small town. People tell you their names and you remember them; it's not as if there are eight million of them.'

I hadn't really expected the homeless guy to still be standing where I'd seen him yesterday, but Georgie's was as good a place to start looking as any.

'You mean Sam?' Georgie asked. Were there many homeless guys pushing Big Y shopping carts with American flags on them in this town? I said yes.

'That was a wonderful thing you did for him. I been telling everybody how you gave Sam a whole new start.'

I don't usually give money to people on the street. In New York, conventional wisdom says they'd only go straight to the liquor store with it and buy another bottle; here, it seemed different. But twenty bucks hardly qualified as a whole new start. 'It was only a few dollars. Have you seen him?'

'Not since yesterday.' He clammed up as if he thought I might be looking for change from the twenty.

'He might be in trouble,' Lucy said.

'Scout's honor, I haven't seen him,' Georgie said. 'I kidded him, maybe he was going to Florida with all that dough.'

And who would have blamed him if he did leave town. Especially if Sam suspected what we did: that Billy Crawford was being set up and hunted for what he'd seen that night, and thought he might be next.

I scribbled a note on the back of a business card and left it with Georgie. 'If you see him, please ask him to call me. We're only trying to help.

'Is Betty Smallwood around?' I asked.

Georgie shook his head.

Betty had been running around trying to raise Claude's bail. He looked from me to Lucy and back again. 'Were you the girl in here with Claude the other night?' he asked.

'That was me,' Lucy said.

'Yeah, that Claude always had an eye for the ladies. You be careful now.'

We left Georgie's and headed back to Titans, to see if anyone there had seen Sam/Big Y, the homeless guy who now had a real name.

Taylor, the clerk in the oversize jacket who was on duty the night I first arrived, was at the front desk. He was grinning and pleased with himself that he remembered my name.

'Hello, Ms. Cavanaugh. Welcome back to Titans.'

Lucy answered him and the kid looked confused. Then she did.

'Never mind,' I told her, 'it's too complicated.'

I asked if he'd seen Hector and he told me Hector and Rachel had been in the bar when he came on duty.

'I don't know if they're still there. I only noticed because I like to keep an eye on Amanda when she's in the hotel.' So he was the boyfriend.

I was in no hurry to see Rachel Page again and knew she wouldn't be helpful if we did see her. 'Taylor, will you do us a favor?' He looked nervous, but Lucy picked up her cue and turned on the charm. 'Will you call Mrs. Page's number and see if she's in her office? We don't want to disturb her if she's discussing important business with Hector.' I felt sorry for deceiving the guy, but what harm would it do? He thought about it for a minute, then Lucy flashed her baby blues at him and he couldn't pick up the phone fast enough. Sometimes I hated her.

He put the phone on speaker and dialed. 'Mrs. Page? Oh, there you are.'

'You just called me, you halfwit. Who did you think would be here? What is it?' she asked. Taylor paused; he hadn't thought that far ahead and since the phone was on speaker we couldn't help him out. 'Young man, are you trying to get fired?' She slammed the phone down.